Windows 8 Developer Preview Expiration Date Gets Postponed

Users who are currently running the Windows 8 Developer Preview that was made available for download in September last year can now prolong the life of their OS until January 15th, 2013.

On February 16th, Microsoft issued an update for the platform, meant to postpone the expiration date for the Windows 8 Developer Preview and Windows 8 Server Developer Preview to the next year.

Initially, Windows 8 Developer Preview was meant to expire on March 11th, 2012, while the Windows 8 Server Developer Preview had its expiration date set for April 8th, 2012.

As soon as the expiration date is reached, systems running under these platforms will periodically restart. To continue using the platforms, users will need to install the recently issued update before the activation license expires.

As soon as Windows 8 Developer Preview and of Windows 8 Server Developer Preview expire, users will receive a message on the Activate Windows screen in Control Panel to inform them on the matter:

The license for this pre-released version of Windows has expired. You’ll need to enter a new product key to activate Windows. Until you activate, Windows will restart every 1 hour, so you should back up your data. Install the latest version of Windows.

On the Windows Activation screen, the following message will be displayed:

This pre-release version of Windows has expired. Your computer will restart every 2 hours and you might lose any unsaved data.

Moreover, users will not be able to personalize their PC after the expiration date of Windows 8 Developer Preview. They will need to Activate Windows before getting access to personalization capabilities on their PCs.

Starting 14 days before the expiration date, Windows will start delivering notifications to the desktop and in the Security section of Action Center:

This pre-release version of Windows will expire soon. Go to Windows Activation to purchase and install a released version of Windows.

The new update was made available from Microsoft Update. To check for its availability, users will need to start Windows Update from Control Panel, and then click Check for Updates in Windows 8 Developer Preview or Windows 8 Server Developer Preview.

You can download the Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 M3 from Softpedia via this link.